At the American Health Association (AHA)’s “Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) 2020 Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine” conference, held online from May 5 to 7, Korea University (KU) Guro Hospital’s research team led by Drs. Kim Jin Won, Kang Dong Oh, and Eo Jae Sun received the Paul Dudley White International Scholarship Award. The award, named after the renowned Dr. White of Harvard Medical School, is considered one of the most prestigious awards presented by the AHA. The team’s research, titled “Brain Emotional Activity is Associated with Acute Plaque Instability Via Enhanced Macrophage Activity: A Prospective 3D Rendered 18F FDG PET/CT Assessment,” examined the association of emotional activity to blood vessel inflammation of recent heart attack patients.

Dr. Kang, the lead author of the study, explained, “The results of this study are academically significant in that they propose meaningful leads as to whether emotional stress manifests itself as arteriosclerotic cardiovascular diseases through means of pathologic physiology.” Furthermore, Dr. Kim stated that he is continuing research that hopes to discover a new method of controlling inflammatory intermediate mechanisms between certain neurological functions and heart attacks.